238 LEADING OUT A COLT 



strength, and if you do not do anything to make him pull 

 he will never know that he can. In a few minutes you 

 can begin to control him with the halter ; then shorten 

 the distance between yourself and the horse by taking 

 up the strap in your hand/' 



Then foUow some precautions about leading the colt 

 out of the stable ; but so far it does not appear that a 

 scintiUa or spark of new light is thrown on our system 

 of horse-breaking, although there is something novel in 

 the directions given under the next head, " How to lead 

 a colt by the side of a broke horse " through a stable 

 door, which I think few except a drunken or crazy man 

 would think of attempting, seeing there exists no necessity 

 for imperilling the life or Hmbs of man or horse by such 

 a Quixotic experiment. Under this head are instructions 

 how to attach a colt to a broke horse, which I give in 

 Mr. Rarey's own words : — " If you want to lead your 

 colt by the side of another horse, as is often the case, I 

 would advise you to take your horse into the stable, 

 attach a second strap to the colt's halter, and lead your 

 horse up alongside of him. Then get on the broke horse 

 and take one strap around his breast, under his martingale 

 (if he has any on), holding it in your left hand. This wiU 

 prevent the colt from getting back too far ; besides, you 

 will have more power to hold him with the strap pulling 

 against the horse's breast. The other strap take up in 

 your right hand, to prevent him from running ahead. 

 This is the best way to lead a colt. You can manage 

 any kind of colt in this way without any trouble " (not at 

 all clear to my duU comprehension) ; "for if he tries to 

 run ahead, or puU back, the two straps will bring the 

 horses facing each other " (with the prospect of knocking 

 each other's brains out), " so that you can very easily 



